Tech

9 Apps You Don't Want To Miss

9 Apps You Don't Want To Miss (12/16/2012)

Strum

Strum instantly turns your 15-second video clips into rock-and-roll masterpieces. The new video app comes with built-in filters, and when you add them to your video, they'll transform it into anything from a rap song to a love ballad.

Soundtracks are customized for your particular video, so even if you use the same filter on two different videos the results will likely be much different. The app has more than 20 different filters, including several themed filters for the holidays.

Amazon Instant Video

Amazon brought its Instant Video app to the iPhone and iPod touch this week. Previously only available for the iPad, the app allows Amazon Prime members to freely access over 30,000 titles from Amazon's Prime Instant Video service. Titles include movies such as Hugo, Thor and Goodfellas, as well as TV shows such as American Horror Story, Downton Abbey and Fringe.

Flywheel

Popular Android and iOS taxi-hailing app Cabulous rebranded this week as Flywheel. The new app maintains much of the same functionality as the original, and adds the ability to track your taxi’s location on a live map and call the driver from the app, masking your phone number so it isn’t shared. Taxi rides can also be paid for from your phone if you choose (or paid in cash to the driver).

Flickr

Flickr updated its iOS app this week. Rebuilt from the ground up, the updated app includes 15 photo filters which users can take advantage of when uploading shots. The app is also integrated in with Twitter, Tumblr, and Foursquare.

”We worked closely with Facebook and Twitter to create a seamless experience," said Markus Spiering, head of product for Flickr. "We have had some integration with the sites before, but not this directly. Since we are launching a mobile product, it's important that the experience works across various devices.”

100 Doors 2013

A followup to the popular game 100 Doors, 100 Doors 2013 is a puzzle game for Android that forces you to do one thing : open the door. The app comes with 85 doors to unlock, as well as several mini puzzles.

Doors are each opened in a different way through a combination of pinching, poking, shaking, and tilting the on-screen images

Buffer

Buffer updated its app this week. The app allows you to share and schedule posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and App.net. The updated version of the app includes a brand new updated design as well as improved account selection.

Viddy for Android

Viddy arrived on Android this week. Not just a rehash of the iOS app, Viddy for Android was built from scratch from the ground up, specifically for Android.

“One of the things we realized was half of our audience wasn’t able to participate,” Brett O’Brien, co-founder and CEO of Viddy told Mashable. Building that app took some time, however, because Viddy had to take into account all of the different Android devices, form factors, and versions of the operating system out on the market today.

Google Maps for iOS

Google Maps returned for iOS this week. Replaced earlier this year as the default-mapping app for the iPhone, Google Maps is now available as a free stand-alone app. The apps looks and functions closer to the Android version of that app, offering iPhone users a number of new features, including turn-by-turn directions.

Gabi

Facebook-curating app Gabi saw a huge update this week. Now the app ranks Facebook content by what gets the most likes and comments, has a new feed display for content, and learns your preferences to help you always see what’s important.

Originally released earlier this year, the app is a unique way to visualize and interact with Facebook. The app helps surface posts on the social network that will be important to you, as well as help you understand which of your Facebook posts are the most effective.

It can be tough to keep up with all the new apps released every week. But you're in luck — we take care of that for you, creating a roundup each weekend of our favorite new and updated apps.

This week we found an app that lets you create a movie video on your phone or tablet in just a few seconds, and a popular service for watching videos made its way to even more devices.

An app that lets you hail a cab directly from your smartphone rebranded itself this week, adding some new features in the process; and a popular mapping app finally made its way back to the iPhone.

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